SQuaD Moni­to­ring Report on Quan­tum Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on

Secu­re com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on is a cor­ner­stone of free socie­ties and essen­ti­al for the relia­ble ope­ra­ti­on of cri­ti­cal infra­struc­tures. Cryp­to­gra­phic methods are cru­cial to ensu­re this. Howe­ver, the secu­ri­ty of today’s encryp­ti­on pro­ces­ses is threa­ten­ed by the rapid deve­lo­p­ment of quan­tum com­pu­ters. The­se could be able to crack con­ven­tio­nal encryp­ti­on in the fore­seeable future. This is whe­re quan­tum com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and the “quan­tum-secu­re” encryp­ti­on stra­te­gies that are based on it come into play. The­se build on the future tech­no­lo­gy base pro­vi­ded by quan­tum key dis­tri­bu­ti­on (QKD), which pro­mi­ses phy­si­cal­ly secu­re com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on based on quan­tum mecha­ni­cal prin­ci­ples, and quan­tum repea­ters, which trans­mit quan­tum sta­tes over lon­ger distances.
In this con­text, a new stu­dy by Fraun­ho­fer-Insti­tut für Sys­tem- und Inno­va­ti­ons­for­schung (ISI) and Uni­ver­si­tät des Saar­lan­des (UdS) took a clo­ser look at the cur­rent sta­te of quan­tum com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on tech­no­lo­gies. The stu­dy was con­duc­ted as part of the Umbrel­la Pro­ject for Quan­tum Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on in Ger­ma­ny (SQuaD), which is fun­ded by the Bun­des­mi­nis­te­ri­um für Bil­dung und For­schung (BMBF). In addi­ti­on to their mar­ket rea­di­ness, advan­ta­ges and draw­backs, quan­ti­ta­ti­ve moni­to­ring was car­ri­ed out to ana­ly­ze publi­ca­ti­on and patent acti­vi­ties, growth rates and tech­no­lo­gy fun­ding. Click here for the moni­to­ring report.

Aut­hor: Fraun­ho­fer ISI

Source refe­rence: Fraun­ho­fer ISI